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What insects are these?

I am up in the woods in PA. I saw some insects that I was unfamiliar with enjoying some comb that I left out. I can only describe the one as a moth, fly, Bumble Bee. There were some variations of flies and little bees that looked like small honey bees and there were small long black flying insects that were cool looking and other things. They looked so happy to be out flying. It was quite nice to see them. Please let me know what these are. Thank You!

Re: What insects are these?

Thank You, Happy Mother's Day. I guess the first one is a horse fly which there are numerous variations of. There were some sweat bees in there that looked like little honey bees and the black one I think is a Halictid (Sweat) Bee. It's amazing that there are even smaller bees with details like honey bees. The wax really brought out the flying insects. I saw some other wasps and bees as well that were beautiful that day that I didn't get pictures of. Nothing was attempting to rob out the bees yet so it didn't seem detrimental to leave the combs laying out but I will be cautious with doing this much longer.

I found this insect identification link and it covers some that I hope to see as time goes on.

Re: What insects are these?

The wasp looking insect in the first picture...I planted four Apple trees two years ago and one day I walked outside and the trees were covered with these things eating the leaves, I got them all off but the next day what leaves were left had turned black and remained on the trees.

Re: What insects are these?

I am learning from the tiny bit of looking on the web about these sweat bees that there are many variations of these.
I didn't know that they would eat leaves. Did your apple trees survive the leaf eating? I have 2 that I planted this year. It's my first time trying to grow apple trees.

Re: What insects are these?

Originally Posted by virginiawolf

I am learning from the tiny bit of looking on the web about these sweat bees that there are many variations of these.
I didn't know that they would eat leaves. Did your apple trees survive the leaf eating? I have 2 that I planted this year. It's my first time trying to grow apple trees.

Re: What insects are these?

Huh, someone has surely seen something similar happen to their trees what happened to your trees but I haven't. I can only guess that the trees were about to die anyway and it caused them to produce some scented nutrients. The insects smelled it and came and sucked the last life out of the trees. I'm just guessing though. That article on the sweat bees describes some of them as looking like little wasps so I thought it was some form of sweat bee but the closest picture that I found is showing that it is a small black wasp like you all were saying. Some of the pictures that I found initially in search of these were close but not exact. This looks just like the little one in the top pick.